In-N-Out Burger became a fast-food legend for its simple, yet just big enough menu. Of course, the burgers aren’t half-bad either. But what if a place were to take that simplicity, but kick things up a notch in ingredient quality? That’s where Little Big Burger in Portland comes in. Simple menu (6 items including drinks and no secret menu to speak of). Good prices ($3.75 for a cheeseburger). And hopefully delicious food.
Possibly the hardest part about leaving LA (besides giving up my income, friends and weather) was leaving the delicious Mexican food behind. But when we were in Portland, we learned that there was hope for Mexican food beyond the world that hugged that southern border. We were taken to ¿Por Que No?, a little taqueria shack in what seemed to be mostly a residential neighborhood in North Portland.
No self-respecting meat blogger can go to Portland and leave without first paying a visit to Voodoo Doughnut. That’s because Voodoo Doughnut is no ordinary doughnut shop. Not content with simply making a few tasty crullers and eclairs, Voodoo Doughnut has come up with doughnuts topped with just about any ingredient that you could ever want on a doughnut, and some you might not. Think Tang, Cap’n Crunch and weird vegan things that simply seem necessary in Portland. Some are even shaped like dongs, but that’s a whole other story. In my story, the line in front of the place only took about a half an hour, which I was informed was not terrible despite that it was mid-afternoon on a Thursday.
Portland undoubtedly has a reputation for being “granola.” Having never been myself I couldn’t quite vouch for anything, until I made my way there on my road trip. We were staying with someone in the Pearl District and I decided to check out Hotlips Pizza. Hotlips is a sort of New York-style pizza joint with a definite Portlandish twist. Pizza options were definitely geared towards being local and on the vegan/vegetarian end. Fortunately, though, they had pepperoni.
Possibly the best part of a road trip is not quite knowing where you’ll be sleeping that night, and not just which hotel, but sometimes which city. Somehow after a day at beautiful, if foggy Crater Lake we decided to make the trek to Eugene, Oregon to crash with a family friend. Knowing the kind of food I like to eat and the kind of beers I like to drink, he took us to McMenamins, a sort of chain of microbreweries throughout Oregon and Washington. He explained that each one was unique in its design because they typically opened up in buildings with previous tenants and worked within those confines. It was a pretty cool concept and the McMenamins North Bank in Eugene certainly had an awesome set up.
The fast food restaurants of the world have taken some remarkable paths. McDonald’s and Subway have infiltrated nearly every corner of the globe. Taco Bell has brought “Mexican” food across the United States and places like In-N-Out have garnered cult followings while remaining tied down to a specific region. There is a reason that people on the East Coast have heard of In-N-Out and a reason why people in the Northeast heard of Chick-fil-a before its expansion. Likewise, there is a reason I had ever heard of TacoTime.
Back in St. Helena is a place called The Model Bakery. And The Model Bakery isn’t your typical bakery. You see, their specialty is a little something that isn’t usually found beyond the grocery store: The English Muffin. That’s right, the dry, flaky, often disappointing breakfast muffin can actually be made outside the Thomas’ factory.
By most accounts, St. Helena in Northern California is a small town. Yet, within this small town in the middle of wine country is a burger stand of national acclaim serving up food with a non-small town price. Called Gott’s Roadside, it is both literally and figuratively not to be missed in St. Helena. We arrived after a bit of a wine tasting, eager to see what all the fuss was about.
As we began our road trip, we had one rule for meals: No more than $10 per person. It was a relatively simple rule, but still frightening when considering how much that would cost for two people for three meals a day. With this in mind, a buddy of mine recommended Splash Cafe in San Luis Obispo (also known as SLO for the cool kids). He had heard great things about their clam chowder, so I was excited to get clammed up there.
If you could have one final meal in LA that truly represents the city, what would you choose? Umami Burger? Korean BBQ? Some sort of Asian fusion? Anything with avocado in it? Seeing as I had eaten Umami the night before, for me it was a taco truck. You see, taco trucks just might represent LA better than any other food purveyor. Their mobility is all-important in a city that relies so much on cars. Their Mexican dishes feel perfectly at home in a place that was once Mexico and is chock-full of Mexican heritage. And their relatively low barrier to entry provides a great opportunity in a city that brings new opportunists in every day. For my last meal in LA, I chose Leo’s Taco Truck.